Finding Truth
by AquilaTempestas
Summary: Ash organizes a high school reunion and invites everyone along. Gary finds Misty alone and takes the chance to find truth behind the rumour about her crush on Ash. Does she still love Ash, or is she prepared to love someone else? Someone like himself, perhaps? Egoshipping!


**Disclaimer**

I do not own Pokemon

**Title**

Finding Truth

**Summary**

Ash organizes a high school reunion and invites everyone along. Gary finds Misty alone and takes the chance to find truth behind the rumour about her crush on Ash. Does she still love Ash, or is she prepared to love someone else? Someone like himself, perhaps?

**.**

In the centre of the hall there are hundreds of bodies pressing up against each other as they dance to the beat of the music. The steady continuous thump of the song resonates throughout the entire hall and even those not on the floor are tempted to move along with the rhythm. Fingers snap, heads bob and feet tap and soon more people join in the mass sea of people.

For those that refused to dance, indulging in alcohol seemed like a great way to pass time. Intoxicated, seemingly simple tasks are quite difficult yet prove most amusing to attempt. A group of males in the far right corner cackled in laughter as one of their friends attempted a handstand. One took a photo of the show ready for blackmail purposes later.

But his eyes were not focused on the silly shenanigans happening around him. He was more interested in the girl sitting alone at the far end of the punch table. Unlike the other girls present, this one seemed out of place. Her bright orange hair was held together by a hair tie in one of those stupid side ponytails some girls seemed to favour. Her green sharp eyes scanned the environment as if she were a vulture looking for her prey. She was not wearing a dress; rather dressed in simple everyday clothes consisting of shorts and a simple top. She looked like she was ready to go to a beach party; not an indoor house party.

Yet despite her simple appearance, he found he could not pull away. The average guy wouldn't call her hot; heck, she probably wouldn't even register in the top twenty 'hottest girls of the year' list. She did not have a voluptuous frame like most of the girls in the room; she barely had any meat on her body which only gave her a rather frail appearance. But he knew her well enough to know that looks were deceiving.

The girl had a potty mouth. It was that mouth that earned her the reputation as 'the volatile queen'. She was quick to anger; one wrong word and her she proved to people how she had earned her title. The girl loved water, which was rather ironic because she was commonly associated with the element of fire. Her name was Misty, and aside from her reputation, she was known as one of being one of Ash's closest friends.

"I don't even know why she even bothered to come to this party," Gary heard one of the girls mention nearby.

"She's only here because of Ash. Haven't you heard the latest rumours? Misty is in love with him," the other girl responded.

The first girl snorted. "Almost every girl is in love with Ash."

The two girls stood up, shaking their heads in disproval of Misty's presence. Gary leaned back against the hard wood surface of the wall, staring in Misty's direction. So the volatile queen had a crush on Ash? He was going to put that rumour to the test. Many years ago it was Gary all the girls wanted. He had the money, the fame, the look and most importantly, the confidence to back it all up. But those days had long since gone, and now he was just seen as 'Ash's old rival'.

Gary ran a hand through his perfectly gelled hair, and strode over to Misty. In their earlier teenager years, Gary had little time to waste on Misty, but now that they were past highschool, and both in college, he saw another side to her that attracted him. There was no spare seat next to her, so his only option was to invite her to the dance floor. He approached her from the side, putting on his trademark smirk. "Will you do me the honour of being my partner?"

Misty glanced up, cool eyes locking on his own. She snorted. "I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole," she replied, waving her hand dismissively. "Please move; you're blocking my light." Indeed he was. His form had cast a shadow over her.

Gary only smirked. He expected that response from her. Misty always pretended to give him that cold-hearted bitch act, but it never worked on him. However, it did make making any move on her difficult and rather awkward. Perhaps he'd be lucky tonight. Unfortunately for Misty's sake, he was rather persistent. "That's a shame… I guess you are only here for Ash after all… just like every other girl in here." He knew that would get to her. Misty hated being compared to the other girls, especially her three beautiful sisters.

Her brows furrowed in annoyance. "I'm not here for Ash."

"Then why are you here?"

Her stare intensified. "Why would you care?"

"It might surprise you to know, but I can be a very caring guy."

There was a pause, and Misty tilted her head to the side, thinking about his words. "I wouldn't dance with you even if we were the last two people on earth," she said finally, giving him a triumphant smirk.

He placed a hand over his heart, pretending to be severely wounded. "And you just shot a poisoned arrow right into my aching heart," he mocked, eyes full of mirth. The humour in his tone faded, replaced with a serious one. "This could be my last night on earth – I want you to share it with me." He gazed into her eyes, silently praying to Arceus his usual douche-guy smirk wasn't showing. He was sincere in his suggestion – he really did want Misty to be his dance partner. He couldn't quite understand it himself, but he felt drawn to her presence, much like a moth to a light source.

She lifted a brow, and scoffed. "You're serious? You want to dance with me?" She stood up and pressed the back of her left hand against his forehead, testing for a fever. "Well, you're not a sick… That just proves it then, there is something wrong with you." She smirked again, slowly pulling back her hand.

He frowned, grabbing her arm with his hand. His fingers curled around her wrist, "I'm being sincere. It doesn't happen often, you should be honoured."

She pried his fingers free. "I should be honoured to dance with the infamous Gary Oak, I take it. If you're trying to mock me, then stop. You're not fooling me." She was about to look away, when Gary found himself grabbing her arm again. "Gary…"

"I don't know how much longer I can take more of this," Gary started, "You keep avoiding me. I know you're not here for Ash – you're here because you heard I was coming. Brock's party last weekend. I was there… you were there. You were there when I was telling new trainers about their choices in starter Pokemon two weeks ago. You were there when I announced my plans to start up a new research facility a month ago. And now we're both here, at our highschool reunion. It's more than just a coincidence." His eyes never left her face.

Misty looked to the side, biting the bottom of her lip. She was nervous now, not an expression she was used to wearing. "This really isn't the time and place for this…" she murmured.

He brought a hand to her chin, and tilted her head back towards him gently. "I've waited long enough for you to make up your mind, Misty… I'm not waiting any longer. If you love Ash, then tell me so we can both move on from this."

She looked at him again. "The feelings I had for Ash are gone." He knew it was true, but it brought him great satisfaction to hear her say those words aloud. She drew in a deep breath, and sighed. "People are looking at us." He lowered his head, brought it close to Misty's own, and pressed his lips against her cheek. That simple action caught Misty by surprise. She grabbed his arm, fingers digging into his skin. "What the hell?!" Despite her tight grip, she wasn't actually resisting his advances. What was that for?" she added, gently this time.

Gary grinned. "I wanted to see your reaction." Misty's cheeks were turning red. He would've taken a photo if he had a phone on him. "Now I know for sure you don't care about Ash, otherwise you would've slapped me or something." He was still grinning. "So, how about that dance?" he teased.

"I thought I said no," Misty retorted, but not in an angry manner. She was smiling.

"What about a date then?" Gary said.

Misty shook her head mockingly. "You just don't give up do you?"

"I can be very persistent. Besides, would you say no to a face like mine?" he replied, giving her his best charming smile. Misty just laughed. This was the different side to the volatile queen. The fun-loving, joyful side. "Like I said earlier, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life waiting for you. So what's it going to be?"

Misty laced her fingers around his and smiled up at him. "I'm not much of a dancer."

"Then you'll just have to make it up to me with a date, then," he lazily replied, a smirk of victory on his face. Misty might pretend to have this tough girl act on, but he saw right past that. "Do we have a deal?" he teased, wagging his eyebrows.

"Now you're pushing your luck," she said giggling, as she led him towards a vacant spot on the dance floor, ignoring the stares some of the girls were giving her. "Let's just take this one step at a time, shall we?" In Gary's head, that translated to a 'yes, but I don't want to appear too eager.'

"Works for me." The music playing was a slow track, giving those who had been dancing for quite sometime a chance to catch their breath. It also encouraged more people, the less enthusiastic ones, to get involved. Misty rested her head against Gary's chest, and sighed softly, as they moved side to side to the beat of the music. In the corner of his eye, he spotted Ash with Dawn and Brock slowdancing with some poor girl. Everyone had someone. Even the people who were usually single had someone. Gary glanced down at Misty again, noticing her relaxed expression. And at last, he had gotten wanted he had wanted for a long time now.

.

First attempt at writing an egoshipping one shot. Usually I write trickyshipping ones. I hope you found it a decent read even if it did appear like it had been rushed there at the end. I wasn't quite sure how to end it, so I just went with that. I might just attempt another one for Christmas. Reviews are much appreciated!


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